Kef vs Thiel


I have a pretty good setup going and I believe my system can handle the very truthful Thiel speakers. I have a set of Kef Reference Ones and used to have an old set of 103s (which is where I fell in love with the Kef sound!).

Looking to do an upgrade and came across a guy with a set of Reference Model Fours. I also have a perspective with a set of Thiel 3.6s. Where should I go! Yes, I do have available power for both of these sets!

Give me some opinions, I like my Jazz, Female Vocals, and classic Guitar. This is a real pickle!
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Showing 1 response by gundam91

If you stay with KEF, you will most likely have a similar sound to what you currently enjoy. What I mean is that since they are in the same family, they will have some Going to Thiels will most likely cause you to start changing other components in your system. ;-) Thiels are very revealing of the rest of the system. I've had my 3.6 for over 8 years. I've had major changes in my system during that time, and the Thiels never failed to deliver.

Not that the 3.6 does not have its shortcomings. One of the things that I've noticed is some congestions in the upper bass, lower midrange area. There's an article in the Hong Kong Audio magazine on how to "tweak" your speakers to counter this effect which require some surgery on the speakers. Another option is to get a pair of Sound Anchor's base for these speakers. I have the older style which wrapps around the base of each speaker. They are very effective alleviating the "congestion" problem and also tightens up the bass. A friend of mine just borrowed them to try in his system and he said that they made more improvement than any of the over $1k speaker cables he had been auditioning.

FrankC